It's (Un)Equal Pay Day!

April 17 is Equal Pay Day, marking how many extra hours women have to work in order to make as much as their male counterparts did the year prior. Not only is this day depressing because we're still "celebrating" it nearly half a century after John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act, it's depressing because large pay gaps still exist among groups of women whose wages fall far below 77 cents on the dollar.

While it's important to recognize the wage gap in all forms, it's easy to make it about men and women and ignore the intersections that exist within those categories. For example, black and Latina women make significantly less than white women, and trans women make even less than that.

If that wasn't enough to piss you off, Rep. Jackie Speier reminds us that, "There is cruel irony in having Equal Pay Day fall on Tax Day. Women and men share the responsibility of paying taxes, but there is no sharing when it comes to receiving equal pay for comparable work."

Thanks for the link, nettle. I used the term "transwomen" without a space originally because that's how it was written in the article at Transgriot (the site I linked to) and I opted to use their wording. However, the article you link to makes some important points about putting in a space (and I didn't quote the Transgriot article directly) so I put the space in. Thanks for saying something!